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Don Evans, 65, a Playwright Who Focused on Black Lives

Don Evans, a playwright of the African-American experience, about which he also taught at the College of New Jersey for 30 years, died on Oct. 16 at his home in Merchantville, N.J. He was 65.

The cause was a heart attack, his family said.

A member of the Black Arts movement of the 1960's and 70's, Mr. Evans had his plays performed on campuses, where he often directed, and in repertory theaters in the United States and Europe. Several were originally produced at the Crossroads Theater Company in New Brunswick, N.J., and were staged at the New Federal Theater in Manhattan.

His best-known works include ''It's Showdown Time,'' a ribald contemporary version of Shakespeare's ''Taming of the Shrew,'' now playing at the eta Creative Arts Foundation in Chicago; ''One Monkey Don't Stop No Show,'' a comedic spoof of a middle-class black family, with a serious undercurrent; ''A Lovesong for Miss Lydia,'' a Pinteresque encounter of two elderly people; and a pair of one-act plays, ''Orrin'' and ''Sugar-Mouth Sam Don't Dance No More.''

Donald Thomas Evans was born in Philadelphia and served in the Marine Corps. He graduated from what is now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1962. At Temple University he received a master's degree in 1968 and a master of fine arts degree in 1972.

He made his Manhattan debut at the Theater de Lys in 1973 with ''Orrin,'' a vignette of black upwardly mobile domesticity upset by the homecoming of a prodigal son.

He directed the college theater at Cheyney before joining the faculty at Trenton State College -- now the College of New Jersey -- in 1972. There he became an associate professor of African-American studies and served as department chairman.

Over the years he was an adjunct professor at Princeton, a visiting professor of theater arts at Rutgers and a lecturer and director of workshops for the United States Information Agency in India. He was a board member of the National Shakespeare Committee and a founder of the Players Company of Trenton.

Mr. Evans's marriage to Frances Gooding Chapman of Philadelphia ended in divorce. He is survived by two sons, Todd, of Willingboro, N.J., and Orrin, of Philadelphia; a daughter, Rachel Marianno of Pennsauken, N.J.; his mother, Mary Evans of Philadelphia; and seven grandchildren.